Quija Boards

[Greg00]

Are Quija Boards evil? Are these things for real? Does anybody have any personal stories they could share to help me better understand these mysterious things? Does the Church have any official position on them? From some of the stories I heard they sound very dangerous.

 

[Scott_Waddell]

I am unaware of any official Church teaching that specifically mentions Ouiji boards, but it is an appeal to magic, which the Church very much does teach about:

Divination and magic

2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.

2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future.48 Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity.

 

[Genesis315]

Greg00:

Are Quija Boards evil? Are these things for real? Does anybody have any personal stories they could share to help me better understand these mysterious things? Does the Church have any official position on them? From some of the stories I heard they sound very dangerous.

Real or not, it is an attempt to conjure the dead, which as Scott pointed out is clearly prohibited.

 

[Annunciata]

Greg00:

Are Quija Boards evil? Are these things for real? Does anybody have any personal stories they could share to help me better understand these mysterious things? Does the Church have any official position on them? From some of the stories I heard they sound very dangerous.

Greg,
Please see this article:
envoymagazine.com/backissues/4.3/ouija.htm

 

[Greg00]

Has anyone actually used one or know anyone who’s used one? I’m surprised that you can buy them at toy stores, also. Btw, thanks for the article, Annunciata.

 

[Liberian]

Greg00:

Has anyone actually used one or know anyone who’s used one? I’m surprised that you can buy them at toy stores, also. Btw, thanks for the article, Annunciata.

Greg,

The answer to your question is “yes.” But what part of “stay away from them, they are bad news” didn’t you understand?

• Liberian

 

[Scott_Waddell]

Liberian:

Greg,

The answer to your question is “yes.” But what part of “stay away from them, they are bad news” didn’t you understand?

• Liberian

I don’t think he is looking for an excuse to use one (that is, suggesting that because no one responding so far has actually used one that our responses are invalid) --he just wants to hear testimony from people with direct experience. As a former dabbler in the occult, I would be interested to hear them as well.

Scott

 

[Lisa4Catholics]

Yes they are and leave them alone!

 

[Greg00]

Scott has it right. I realize that they are bad and I should stay away from them, but would like to hear of some peoples’ experience with them. But if no one feels like it, then okay. Thanks for answering my question though, everyone. THey are dangerous and I will stay away from them.

 

[Adonis33]

Greg00:

Has anyone actually used one or know anyone who’s used one? I’m surprised that you can buy them at toy stores, also. Btw, thanks for the article, Annunciata.

I think Parker Brothers distributes a Ouiji Board.

Fun for the whole family.

 

[StCsDavid]

Greg00:

Are Quija Boards evil? Are these things for real? Does anybody have any personal stories they could share to help me better understand these mysterious things? Does the Church have any official position on them? From some of the stories I heard they sound very dangerous.

I believe one should examine why one wants to use a Quija board. The evil it might represent would be in the intent of its use. Personally, I think they’re a lot of hooey. I’m more fascinated by the power of prayer.

 

[Pug]

Greg00:

Scott has it right. I realize that they are bad and I should stay away from them, but would like to hear of some peoples’ experience with them. But if no one feels like it, then okay. Thanks for answering my question though, everyone. THey are dangerous and I will stay away from them.

I used one as a child. I read the directions and played the game (probably parker brothers). The only reason I did so was because it was a game that was in my grandma’s basement. I asked it questions, just the kind a child would ask. I don’t remember it telling me anything significant that I really took seriously, but I have some memory loss. It mostly seemed to be broken to me, if I recall (that is, its answers made no sense). I eventually got tired of it, and it probably remained in the basement until she died and it was sold with the estate.

At the time, I did not think much of it, but now I do. I didn’t connect it with my later obsession with Tarot cards (also very bad news). I don’t really talk about what happened in connection with the Tarot cards. Let’s just say I lost about 2 years of my life. Perhaps you could say I lost myself. I’d probably been lost for a long time. Of course, it may have nothing to do with the Tarot cards. They could have just been a symptom of the whole thing. Either way, I am convinced of their danger (or at least the danger of divination, and of encouraging divination as a game).

You’d think I would have thrown away the Tarot cards, but I didn’t. They remained in a drawer, waiting. When I happened to see them, I would think that they were too pretty to throw out (what rot, no need to point that out to me). I had a strange relationship with them. Anyway, I eventually threw them out, but only after my brain became a bit clearer for having gotten a bit more virtue in other areas of my life.

Even if demons don’t come talk to you or anything dramatic, these boards and cards or the concepts surrounding them lead a person away from the truth and away from reality and away from what could actually help them.

 

[BlestOne]

I have a very grave story about them…
When living in Michigan some kids thought it would be fun to have a seance using a ouija board. They mistakenly called for the Lord to appear before them. The Lord of the Ouija board is satan! Next thing they knew there was a smell of sulfur and 3 kids went out the window. The police came and investigated, they kept asking the kids who threw them out the window focusing on the kids remaining in the room. All the kids said they didn’t do it and even the kids that went through the window described an evil presence that threw them from the room. It was an unsolved case but Ouija boards were banned from the millitary base I was stationed at. STAY AWAY THEY ARE EVIL!!!

 

[Lisa4Catholics]

Greg00:

Scott has it right. I realize that they are bad and I should stay away from them, but would like to hear of some peoples’ experience with them. But if no one feels like it, then okay. Thanks for answering my question though, everyone. THey are dangerous and I will stay away from them.

I have as a teen and had disturbances in my home we burned it.

 

[BlestOne]

Lisa$Catholics…that is the only acceptable way to get rid of the Ouija board…Well Done!!!

 

[katieq]

Ouija boards are far too real and of grave danger to your soul (as you are “letting in” spirits (clearly not of divine, but of evil nature)). Run away, and keep your friends/loved-ones away!!

 

[Arlene]

I remember playing with one as a child. I was with friends and it was just a curiosity thing to see if it really worked. We decided it was just a bunch of hooey. It ranked right there with the Magic 8 ball. Some little silly party game.

Now I know it is better to stay away.

Arlene

 

[Joan_M]

My husband, a friend and I used one for a while in the 70’s. At first we thought it was just a game, and thought it was fun. Then we asked a question about a known bandit who was on the run from the police. The answer that was spelled out was “HELL”. That really shocked us. And, when we learned from the news later that he had been killed some days prior in a shootout, we were really freaked!

I became more and more uncomfortable with this “game” in my house, and, since it wasn’t ours, we returned it to my sister-in-law, telling her about our experience with it.

Ouija Boards are very dangerous. Parker Brothers should be ashamed of themselves for marketing this.

 

[marvin]

My older sister’s friend had a ouija board. Once when we were kids, the friend brought it over and her and I asked it questions in a darkened room. The thing started to move and I freaked! I jumped up, ran out of the room and down the steps in about two motions! I probably satyed up all night too. No, I am not a fan of the supernatural.

The upshot is, this friend of my sister’s eventually turned her back
on the church and became a mormon. I myself left the church for around ten years beginning in my late teens. Coincedence…?

 

[BibleReader]

Greg00:

Are Quija Boards evil? Are these things for real? Does anybody have any personal stories they could share to help me better understand these mysterious things? Does the Church have any official position on them? From some of the stories I heard they sound very dangerous.

The warning about Ouija boards is valid. They are dangerous.

paganpath.com/ouija.jpg

When I was about 4 years of age, Ouija boards were widely regarded as a novel, intriguing “game.” My parents got one for my older brother, 6, and older sister, 9. I remember standing excitedly next to the table, wishing I could play, as my brother and sister held onto the planchette and achieved ambiguous results.

On a particular night soon afterwards, I awakened in the middle of the night, laying quietly in my bed on my left side, listening to the rest of the family breathing and snoring in their sleep.

All of a sudden, I had a strong feeling that something was about to happen. As I stared into my parents’ bedroom – my bed was next to the doorway to their room – I saw a very traditional translucent “ghost” float into their room from the direction of my sister’s room, float around my parents’ bed, and float toward me, in my bed, in our room.

Terrified, I hid my head under the blankets. After a few minutes, I peeked out in the direction of my parents’ room. Nothing. “It’s gone,” I thought with relief.

I turned over in bed, to sleep on my right side, and stopped short at what I saw. There was the very visible “ghost,” No more than two feet away from me, bending over my sleeping brother, was the “ghost,” staring intently at my sleeping brother’s head.

I was too astonished to do anything but half sit up and stare. The thing slowly turned its head to the right, until the head was turned about 120 degrees from front, and looked at me over its right shoulder, staring into my little kid eyes. I stared back. Then the thing stood straight, turned left, and floated out the other door to our room.

That was the beginning of 20 years of “haunting” of our house, and eventually led to my interest in the reality underlying the occult.